Tonight I started with a blank state. No map or plan. So I grabbed +Richard LeBlanc's d30 DM Companion and his d30 Sandbox Companion turned to random tables in the DM Companion and then did a few rolls on the adventure tables in the Sandbox Companion. Here's what I came up with.
- Treasure Finding Potion requires the imbiber to consume 3x the food and drink for the next week. Used, but tweaked the side effect. See the adventure for the new version.
- Wooden coffer trapped with a magic symbol that does 3d4 damage of frost damage and the target is slowed for the rest of the day. Kept it as is. I added the slow affect.
- Hobgoblins (5d4) = 12 If the patrols are used I think there are 16 total hobgoblins
- Stirges (5d4) = 17 I went with 13 stirges.
- Gnolls (3d6) = 12 I dropped the total to a single gnoll.
- Trigger: Vision Dropped. I tried to write it as a vision, but it sucked.
- Major Goal: Investigate Location Not the major goal, but just a needed aspect.
- Obstacle: Aquire Knowledge In an indirect way this is the major goal. The potion grants this.
- Location: Ruins Kept, love me some ruins.
- Location Feature: Chapel Kept, love me some ruin chapels.
- Phenomena: Shadows Dropped. Just didn't fit in with what I wanted to do.
- Villain Goal: Greed To be determined. This will end up being at least a two part adventure.
- Artifact/Relic: Potion of Treasure Finding Used. I like the slant I used for this one.
So this was the seed of the adventure I wrote. I liked having the adventure revolve around getting an item, but not just an item, but rather a tool for something bigger with a side effect when used. Now of course I did not use everything exactly as rolled, but it helped guide the writing.
While I didn't have a map I put the chapel in some barren hills, party encounters a patrol of hobgoblins before reaching the chapel. There are two ways to enter the chapel, through the tunnel which is infest with a nest of stirges or through the chapel itself where more hobgoblins await. The chapel itself is made of a single room above ground, and then two room underground, a basement and a well room where the goal, the treasure find potion is kept.
When I write an adventure I usually write it three, four times. I had three false starts with this one until I settled on my current version. I will draw the map and edit to become one of my micro-adventures. Here is the raw copy of the adventure. I very pleased the way it turned out.
Suggest a title and maybe you'll get a copy of the adventure when I'm done.
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